MERRIMAC – With a recent survey indicating 79 percent of respondents believe the town needs a new police station, the chief and public safety building committee have scheduled a public forum next month to lay out plans that could make that happen.
Police Chief Eric Shears sent a letter to residents asking for support for a new police station, setting aside any plans for a combined public safety building and highway garage that was turned down by voters earlier this year.
The forum, at 7 p.m. on Sept. 26 at the Merrimac Fire Department, will focus on details for what Shears said would be a $6.5 million, 8,375-square-foot police station on a donated nine-acre parcel on West Main Street.
Shears did a walk-through of the current dilapidated police station last year, which was found “unfit for habitation” in June 2011 by the Board of Health. At the time, there was standing water in the basement, filthy and mold-scented carpeting, and even an infestation of bees on the second floor.
Some renovations were done to make the building habitable by the department, Shears said, but it is “outdated, it is unsafe, and it is an impediment to efficient police operations and investigations and administration,” he said in October.
Merrimac voters approved $500,000, by a vote of 170-17 last fall, paving the way for a design and engineering study for a new station, which has yet to be funded….(Richard K. Lodge — Aug. 14, 2018 — Read More)
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